Does anyone ever use humor...

[duckandcover]

I realize this is "out there" but does anyone ever use humor to battle their anxiety.  It's strange I know to be making jokes when you are panicking or anxious but the other night I was feeling a classic panic attack coming on while at home with my wife and daughter.  My wife is familiar with the symptoms and could see it in my face.  Asked me if I was OK.  (I wasn't).  Not wanting to scare my 6 year old I made a few jokes that daddy was all pins and needles and it was washing over him in waves.  I forced a lighthearted look on my face and treated it it like a game.  It was ALL bluff of course.  I was freaking inside.  But strangely enough it passed much more quickly than usual and I only needed a .25 xanex to relax.

Now whenever I feel early stress I try to joke about it.  I have no reference to know if it's working but it seems to help.

Am I just kidding myself?

[Suzyq0826]

I think if it seems to be working for you, go with it. I haven't tried joking, my anxiety strikes mostly when I'm alone. But whn I feel it coming, a lot of times if I make myself get up and go do something, get busy and take my mind off of it, sometimes it passes. That doesn't always work, but if it works 50% of the time, I am grateful for that.
At any length, I don't see how it can't hurt.

[snoozies43]

Absolutely!

My husband is at our son's wedding out of town. he called and said when he leaves the parking garage he has to leave the garage attendant a tip... I told him to tell the attendant "Plant your grass early"! rofllllllllll just me :D..of course i was kidding.

I was out and about today and laughed with friends it was great medicine. I also took my bike out for a ride...much needed.

Keep laughing :O)
Snooze

[Jikan]

Namaste,

Humor(laughter) is known to have a positive effect on endorphins, the chemical within the brain that makes us feel good.

From a physiological standpoint, I don't see any reason why humor woould not help with your anxiety level, and as Suzyq0826 said, if it works for you, go for it.

Michael(Jikan)

[nursegirl6572]

YES YES YES YES!!!!!  I am HUGE believer in laughter being good for the soul, the mind, the emotions...everything.  If you can manage to make light of your symptoms and maybe get a chuckle out of it at some point....you are making awesome progress...b/c you are realizing just how harmless panic truly is.  You might not be able to halt the sensations...but knowing that they won't harm you is huge.  Keep doing that....it makes it easier and easier.  Also...it gets things out in the open rather than trying to suffer with it internally (I'm a bad one with that).

Another thing...is you must applaud yourself....b/c I do not think you realize that what you did was to take control of the panic at that moment.  You didn't STOP it...but you were able to use laughter and humor as a coping mechanism as to not frighten your daughter (which is a great incentive, btw!)...and as a result....you halted it...it didn't escalate....as a matter of fact...you actually felt a wee bit better.  That is a MASSIVE acomplishment!!!!!

I cannot recall whether or not you were around during the VERY long thread started by Carole (nervous15)...she was petrified of her first "put to sleep" surgery.  Of course we all talked about serious issues...but a LOT of that thread was lighthearted, funny....and it made all the difference in the world...not only for sweet Carole...but for all of us involved.  We all shared funny medical stories...and before we knew it...we were all in stitches.

Great thread...I think it is VERY important to mention this as a way to battle anxiety at times.  It has worked for me on more than one occasion!  Pat yourself on the back....way to go!

[MrGreen]

Well I laughed when I applied for disability benifit on agrophobic grounds and the first thing they handed me was a free travel pass. The person who wouldn't go near a train or a bus if you paid him. Saw the funny side of it though. First place I went to get help was a day hospital and on week one they were having a day trip to somewhere. I seriously couldn't believe it. Agrophobics day out. You can only laugh. Take it all serious and you will be a lot worse.

[JSGeare]

Laughter, humor, is not only good for recovery, one might argue that it is ESSENTIAL to it. In fact, I will argue that very point. The classic work on this is Norman Cousins' "Anatomy of an Illness" which is basically his report on how laughter literally saved his life. Google for that, and then see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter

As part of my own recovery, I would meet a friend every Wednesday night at a particular restaurant, where we would dine together before going to our "Power Over Panic" support group -a self-help group which had no moderator or therapist in charge -just the members. At dinner, and later in the meeting, we would frequently remark on how ridiculous and at times comical our disorder was, in terms of our avoidance behaviors, what we were thinking in certain situations, etc. Most of the time, when any of us had a story to tell about something that happened since the last meeting, it was something that had a comical or humorous side no matter how terrible it was at the time. This is why, I think, that people at funerals are often seen -you guessed it -laughing!

(My Father was a very impressive guy -always made his mark, wherever he went. He was known and loved and respected by many. When he spoke, people listened. When his coffin -he was inside of it- was moved from the church to the hearse for the trip to burial, the young driver accidentally triggered the vehicle's theft alarm somehow. The car started whooping loudly; the pall bearers nearly collapsed, and everyone stood frozen while the driver fumbled to correct the problem. In a few moments, he stopped the noise. By this time, there were perhaps 100 people who were within view and earshot. At the very same moment in time ALL of us broke into uncontrollable laughter. So like my Dad to make a statement!)

Matter of fact, there are outbreaks of humor and laughter right here on the Anxiety Forum. Look at this thread: http://www.medhelp.org/posts/show/521606. About 100 comments which ranged from the dead-serious to knee-slapping slap-stick. Its a LONG one, so read it when you've got 30 minutes free.

There is more to this than just the "feel good" release of endorphins that comes of laughing out loud. Seriously. Fact is, that the mere perception that something is "funny" or humorous requires an act of consciousness that makes us, as humans, unique in the animal kingdom. There must be the ability and the volition to look at something in a different way than it is normally perceived -there must even be the ability to RECOGNIZE that something is or could be "different." That's your brain at work, and it is that very process that fuels our recovery -seeing ourselves in some way OTHER than the way we are. In the thread I mentioned above, it was Mr. Green, I think, who said that in Ireland, folks who are diagnosed as agoraphobic receive free travel passes on public transportation. That's hilarious! OK, well, you could say that it is because -well, you know why. Get it? free travel for people who are housebound....? You had to be there...

And so, if humor can give us a new and different and even joyful understanding of who we can BECOME, then it nhelps us tap into our own psychology, to actually bring it about. I can't count the number of times my psychiatrist and I broke down laughing over som of the ridiculous situations I caused for myself.

But let's move along here. I will share with you folks an "encounter" I had with a representative of the MH "front office," referring here to the psychiatric cases who run this place. This person, in an effort to draw more new members and increase participation among the "regulars," suggested various topics and subjects which the rep. was convinced would get a lot of positive attention. I won't go into the details, but the theory was that people will respond to this "fun game." Those were the words: "fun game." I couldn't make that up. Being open-minded and a team player (I was a CL at the time) I played along and tried out a few of the ideas. Crashed and burned.

Why?

I'll tell you why: for people with a disorder which may mostly be defined as the same kind of torture as being locked into a "fun house" at the carnival, depression, anxiety, panic and all the condiments that go along with it is NOT funny stuff. It's damn miserable, that's what it is. Humor, "fun games," therefore, can't be artificially manufactured by an outside source and expected to have much credibility. It would be like distributing comic strips to innocent people sitting on death row -makes no sense- the ultimate "bad joke."

But humor which spontaneously arises within the context of our own interactions? That's DIFFO. We create it, we see why it is funny, we share it with others who react the same way, we take joy and endorphins from it. And you can't "make it up." The whole basis of the laughter, the humor, the quirky point of view is the reality in which we actually live -it is valid, credible, REAL.

This is not to say that you can't deliberately USE outside sources for yourself. But you need to know where your "funny bone" is. Norman Cousins knew where his funny bone was, and he deliberately deployed Marx brothers comedy and other things that made him laugh to literally and actually save his own life. Read the story: Anatomy of an Illness. It is the real deal.

My funny bone was tickled by Gene Shephard, who wrote "In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash," among other books. The book is a collection of various boyhood adventures, and his manner of describing them would push me over the edge. I would literally laugh until I cried. From a book! I have purchased this book perhaps 5 or 6 times, because I keep giving it away. But YOU may find it to be a crashing bore.

To conclude: yes the humor works, not just because of the feel good factor, but because of the exercise your brain gets in being different from the way it is accustomed to being. See yourself laughing -and see yourself out of this mess.

[nursegirl6572]

What an awesome awesome post as usual.  I couldn't agree more with every word.  And the car alarm?  That's almost a cruel cruel joke.  :0)  But, what's funny (pun intended) is it happened at the perfect time...when people were so probably desperate for a little relief.  Kind of neat in a way (knowing that no one had a heart attack).

:0)

[JSGeare]

After the alarm was silenced, and as the laughter spread through the crowd, my sister and I looked at each other and we both uttered the same observation at the same moment: "Dad always had to have the last word, didn't he?" We giggled all the way to the gravesite. Exactly as he would have had it. I couldn't make this up.

[nursegirl6572]

That is awesome.  Such a silly little thing gave you and your family something to smile about as you remembered your Dad....which undoubtedly is the way he would have wanted it.  That's really neat.